Borrowed Lives
by AshRose
Summary: A story of speculation...if a flower girl and a general made a death pact in the sleeping forest. I became fascinated with the idea of the death pact while watching/reading Harry Potter 6. The ultimate sacrifice in arrangement with the most heinous of deeds. M rating for safety's sake. I hope you enjoy.


"**For as I live this borrowed life,**

**This silence I shall keep.**

**Today I breathe until I die,**

**But never let me weep."**

**Borrowed Lives**

The sleeping forest awoke to the step of the Planet's dearest child. Ever fragile but never afraid as she ran without pause towards her fate. Soft bangs brushed wind blossomed cheeks as the trees turned from grey to pure white.

_Lonely…_

_ Yes, but never alone, _she said without word to the breeze. It joined sky and sea and all life between to be part of that intricate dance speaking as it seeped through her mind. Beneath high hanging boughs she sank to her knees and the grass below bent without rue. She was praying in the position she knew she would die in as lilies white as starlight grew around. She had not meant to call them and felt swift regret to be squandering such precious gifts, but the pulse of life was too great in this instant for knowing what too soon would come.

Her eyes were tight closed shielding the green that had always marked her as different. No ordinary hue, they shone with the color of the tide that dwelt inside all. The memories were hard, but the prayer came easy…strength, light, and hope above it. It would not be enough. Not this last time. Not enough to quell the darkness. The city of her people awaited her shade, and she needed more than courage for the task.

There was no sound for warning or herald, but she knew that he was there. Opening her eyes, auburn veiled her vision to his sturdy, black boots standing close. Their proximity startled her though she hid the gasp as she lowered her hands to her thighs.

In awe she looked up, lips pink and parting. Always she forgot just how tall…but more than that she forgot he was beautiful. A winter angel draped in black with moonlight swirled around. His skin was whiter than alabaster cold as if the sun were too frightened to touch, and the hollows dark beneath his eyes were spilled with emerald light. She remembered again how to breathe through her awe and wished her memory would grant her this grace. It was as though in his absence there was a forgetting cast upon her like a spell. The wind then in mocking blew silver strands forward so they barely brushed her cheeks.

He was looking down at her with face still as marble, clenching gloved hands into fists. The living heat of those green eyes could make a grown man faint, and slit pupils to shame the king of cats cut sharper than the sword at his side. Behind dark lashes longer than hers, the Mako light sheared through, and though she knew she had no choice, the fragile maid still shook.

"You know I will not do this." And she quivered all the more. His low voice awoke the shiver in her skin. It was almost enough to make her abandon her purpose. Almost…

"And you know we have no choice." It had always been there. The unspoken arrangement between the two of them. Ever since he had protected her so long ago in the labs before they could make their separate escapes though neither was truly free. All the players knew the farce, the jailers and the jailed. A bigger cage was still a cage even if it contained the world.

"The darkness is coming," she whispered holding his gaze, though blinked as he did not, "and the light will soon be veiled."

"This is madness, Aeris." He turned away, pulling a hand through his hair. No matter how ripped how flung or torn, it always fell in perfection with high bangs 'cross his face just like hers.

_And no matter how blood soaked, _she thought without willing, _it will always shine so fair._

"No Sephiroth," she said aloud but so softly, "the madness is yet to come…"

He glared at her over his shoulder, staining armor with verdant light.

"You are the one she will corrupt."

"That will never happen." He stepped slowly toward her like a cat in the hunt as she sadly shook her head.

"It will." Her own small hands now clenched too tight. "Your very cells will betray your will. Even now you fight…"

And in his eyes arose a gleam as though woken at those words. It came not from the Mako that swirled in his veins, but from something far deeper and old. The Planet's dear child knew true fear then as the ground beneath keened lament.

"The…beast that gnaws at the heart of the world. The thing that we must stop." She could feel the touch of that terrible corruption trying to worm beneath her skin. He blinked in that instant and the glow became true, as his teeth clenched to words cursing fate.

"You can rage against heaven. Hate the gods if you must. You know it will do no good."

The maledictions he spewed were so coarse in their vehemence Aeris wanted to stop her ears. When he was done, silence reigned complete as if the forest, too, was shamed. He walked slowly back, looked down where she knelt and whispered then, "Why me?"

The wrath made him paler as green light was swallowed in the darkness beneath his eyes.

"You have killed people before. Women, children, innocents…" She looked away for the pain of that truth and forced herself not to think.

"That was war.' His voice was flat and held not one regret. "War is different and I have never killed a child."

"There were children in Nibelheim."

His lip curled in a bitter sneer. "That was different, too." Again he turned away from her. Unable to witness the pre-gifted forgiveness as she begged him to do the most foul. His hair swept soft against his coat like snow in the abyss. Closing his eyes to what was unseen, even in pain he was nothing but beautiful.

"Do you remember, Sephiroth?" Soft but relentless, and the Mako glowed cold to how two voices could be so different but same.

"I remember…" and he froze her with the sight of overlarge irises and slit pupils oh so spare. "I remember watching from the outside as hatred and rage took me over for reasons that now seem so faint. And when it was done and the world lay in ashes, the dead were still able to scream."

"The reasons were for her alone and the cruel lies you were told."

His hair washed his vision but still he could see her kneeling beneath the white tree. Unknowing in her innocence how words could find old wounds.

"You know they were lies now, don't you? You know who your true mother is…"

One sharp nod was all he would give her as his eyes lit the pale of his hair. Aeris sighed and clasped her hands tighter, praying pain give her strength to go on.

"This truth will be lost at my death to insanity. It will sever the last fragile thread…the one you cling to even as we speak."

For only an instant he dropped the mask of the general, the one always held in firm place. She had not the power to squeeze her palms harder to blatant pain laid bare. _This precious truth, too, will be taken, and madness will dance in the hollow so left._

"She is beyond that which is monstrous," he whispered, "but I am a monster, too."

"And you won't even know that you're broken."

And he said once again, "Why me?"

Her neck ached to look far up at him, but he deserved to know all the truth.

"So that you can become the world's enemy. In this we have a chance."

"By me losing my reason to utter insanity and by you losing your life?! How Aeris? How will my murdering you bring the faintest bit of hope to the world?" He wanted to shake her, she looked so calm, hiding her turmoil well.

"Do not think of it as murder." She trembled as the Planet softly called her name. "Think of it as putting me where I must be."

"You still have not said why it must be _me._" He glowered down at her, unapologetic as she shivered in the cold green light. "Why not the boy?"

Aeris never imagined a voice of such greatness could hold such desperation. She tried to keep the same from her face, but it was impossible to hide the feeling there. Desperation, sorrow, and something more shattered his last ounce of composure. The light in his eyes boiled over in spilling with terrible searing heat. He lunged for her faster than Aeris could blink and grasped her thin, trembling shoulders. His hands slid to her waist as he forced her to stand, envy near burning her face. Like the truth of his beauty, she, too, always forgot just how very strong Sephiroth was until those powerful hands were upon her with no hope of any escape.

"And you think well of this boy, don't you?" he hissed as he held her hard against him while the heat from his irises burned along lashes long. But Aeris did not look away even as screams wanted to rend her throat at the sight of those eyes unleashed.

"H-He will lead the others against you," she whispered, held too tight to take full breath, "but I think much better of you. You are the one who will be vilified, and none will ever know the truth…"

She bit her lip thankful for air as Sephiroth loosened his grip. The jealousy was assuaged, but fear still rode the beat of her heart as something more forceful replaced it. He stood to his full height, tossing silver hair aside as it gently brushed her face. One handed he held her and her feet left the ground so she hung helpless in the clutch of his power. She could not help but look up at him, the beauty, the darkness, the towering height as she felt him encase both her wrists and press her against the white tree. Skin called to skin and Aeris looked in surprise for the gloves that had been so shed. He raised slim arms above her head and stepped back before peering down.

The dress's buttons parted in such a way to fire imagination, though not enough to satisfy. Sephiroth thumbed the fastenings below where they parted without protest knowing their master to reveal the cream white thighs.

He wanted her reaction to be painted in Mako's gleam as what he saw in her face spurred him on. "I have never loved killing innocents and avoid doing it at all costs. So I shall make you less than pure this final fateful night…" His voice was a low song poured in her ear, and breath came too fast as she struggled, which only pleased him more. "Perhaps that will make you easier to kill." He knew that was a lie as he kissed her hard and forced her against the tree. Soft lips parted like a flower before his tongue even as she continued to fight him and soft lashes brushed her cheeks.

"Please…" she said when he finally let her, and briefly he wondered if she begged him to stop or go on. His hand so powerful tightened around her frail wrists as he realized he did not care.

"I will not be denied," he said dark and low, nibbling her lower lip. His eyes were half shuttered but that did nothing to hinder the liquid, emerald heat. If death was waiting at the end of his sword, the very one who took her life for the world to survive would take something for him as well…

Her braid came undone at the touch of his fingers so silver and auburn swirled, and Sephiroth released her hands as he laid her in the lilies so they tangled with moonlight so spilled. Aeris looked at him the entire time as she felt herself pulled through his eyes, and whether it was lovemaking or ruin beyond repair, she still willingly cried his name.

When it was done and their clothes were straightened, she knelt now for she could not stand. Salt covered red cheeks, but she did not know if she wept for joy or rue.

"My heart was always yours to break." His low voice stirred the shadows that would not dare creep close. Aeris looked down at the hands folded soft in her lap, as the voice of the world murmured still. One tear last slipped past her guarding so grateful to not be forsaken.

"I suppose," she said with voice so hoarse, "it is only fair I return the favor."

He lowered his head accepting at last as dying day framed him in beauty. Then swift to surprise he knelt as she did, tilting her chin for final kiss. No heat did it lack, but this brush was gentle unlike those of past repute. A slow caress of two tongues dancing and he slid a hand beneath her hair, clearing the tears with his thumb.

He stood with the grace only he could possess, still holding to that embrace, and she rose as far as her knees would allow with a whimper at the released.

Sephiroth looked down at the lilies they'd crushed now dying at her feet. "The things that are most beautiful die long before their time." He reached down to touch her salted cheek with hands gloved once again.

"Some things were never meant to last…" she answered refusing to let her voice break. He heard the sob that was not there, but did not judge her for it.

"I give you this promise then." He stood tall in his glory, the great general again, and touched brief the Masamune. "It is so sharp you will not feel it." All that he bore in these final moments was hidden in the light of his eyes. He watched her as she believed him, waiting for what he did not know. Perhaps for her to tell him that all was a farce and beg him take her away, but he had seen too much in his hard life to not believe horror was true. Sephiroth turned one last time as the forest slept on and let silent steps carry him to what destiny had foretold.

Aeris released her tongue when he had faded from view, but memory would more than match what death could not take too soon.

She was waiting in the position she knew she would die in on an altar made of light. Nothing else mattered but the words of her litany as she prayed for her hope to come true. Not the hard sphere held between her soft palms, nor the boy with his sword raised in anguish. _The players in their places, _she had to believe, _or else everyone will die._

The thought came to him as he flew to the gleam of shimmering, flawless steel to miss, to falter, to strike the boy who he saw in rage threatened her life. But he knew he could not betray her, not on the oath he had sworn.

It was as clean as he could make it and her heart was split in two. The red heat of purity washed the face of death, but winter could never be melted. As the sword wept the blood of the innocent, its master shed tear unseen. It swept away reason and sanity, sundering all memories so passed. The horror then rose up to claim him, sword shedding blood like a second skin. No more for his memory for lies were his mantra. He did not even watch her fall. Still in death, the murdered could smile, as the gates of the world opened wide. The first wheel had been set into motion, and he had kept this promise for her.


End file.
